The Quicksand Singularity ArQive: Array.init:0

A0T4.2 The Ëchüha Incident (Parts 2+3)

"Don't know," Hvórþ answered, "but I suspect the Inquisitor has a good idea."

"Fuck me running," Nobuo swore, panning his torch across the back room again. "He knows something, dunn'e?"

"Let's get a move on," Hvórþ grumbled, turning back to the entrance. "What the shit?"

The lights, he saw them again. Hvórþ panned his torch over a section of the wall in front of him, then off of it. His brow furrowed as he panned his torch back onto the section of wall.

"Nobuo, turn off your torch," Hvórþ ordered, turning his off.

"In this fucking tomb?"

"Turn it off!" Hvórþ hissed.

"Fine," Nobuo acceded, turning off his torch. "Oh, what in unholy incestuous skullfucks on a Solsday morning...?"

What Hvórþ had only been able to see out of the corners of his eyes before, now, in pitch darkness, stuck out like neon marquees in a subcity slum. Faintly lucent claw marks had been left all over front and back room, like they had been painted with a dim, foetid, phosphorescent paint. Most disturbingly, all the bodies had claw marks on them, but these were different. Unlike the ones on the walls and the furniture, they didn't have the appearance of being painted on, but looked as though a luminous blue gas was flowing out of dull-blue gashes glittering faintly. Looking down at his feet, Hvórþ spotted a set of footprints, glowing with the foetid yellow lucence, leading behind him, into the back room. Turning around, he saw the footprints trailing deeper into the back room, toward where the bulk of the corpses were. Hvórþ's stomach fell through the floor when he saw the telltale pattern of a fight right below Nobuo's feet.

Hvórþ turned his flashlight back on. Nobuo lifted his hand to block the light.

"Hey!" Nobuo yelped. "Watch where you're shining that thing."

The blood in Hvórþ's veins turned to ice. Behind Nobuo, something dark and wispy shifted. His eyes widened as something began to rise. Thin, lanky, and disfigured, it was like an emaciated human, but with limbs too long and too thin, a torso too narrow. Its hands were horridly stretched, like baking pans, and six spindly, bony clawed fingers, each the length of Hvórþ's forearm sprouted from them, hanging below the creature's knees.

"Come on, it's not funny, boss!" Nobuo protested as the horrid creature rose from the ground. "Boss!?"

Frozen in place, Hvórþ could only watch as it raised its head—a shrunken, shrivelled skull stretched over with skin so thin he could see spiderwebs of black veins bulging beneath. Wretched tufts of greasy, tangled black hair sprouted here and there like extensions badly glued onto its scalp and then never washed. Two, enormous, bulbous, black eyes stared, lidless, at Nobuo. It had no nose, only a giant mouth, stretching from ear to ear, perpetually open, baring row after row of broken and jagged teeth. The creature reared its head back and issued a blood curdling screech, splitting the silence like a thunderclap.

In an instant, both men had weapons drawn and Nobuo had turned around to face the creature. In the next the creature lunged forward.

"NOBUO!" Hvórþ shouted, but it was too late.

Without even having seen a clear shot of it, Hvórþ knew now what had attacked the Comms Station in the Vscape. He knew this was that thing. He knew it in his bones. That wispy, shadowy blur waylaying, tearing the station to pieces, this was it. Hvórþ's felt his legs quivering as the creature lumbered at Nobuo.

Nobuo screamed and the two of them opened fire as the creature unleashed another shriek. It lashed out, tearing at Nobuo with clawed hands. The moment its claws touched him, Nobuo went silent, limp, and fell to the floor, as though the creature's touch was the very touch of death. In disbelief, Hvórþ watched his bullets pass harmlessly through the creature, like they weren't there, or the creature was an apparition. But it couldn't be either. The creature screeched and shrieked, lashing more furiously at Nobuo with each bullet that phased through it. Each flailing strike of its limb scattered dust and bashed against objects, but had no discernible impact on Nobuo.